Krzyzewski, also known as Coach K, is one of the most successful collegiate basketball coaches in history. Some people are unaware that he is a Polish-American, as evidenced by his surname. On February 13, 1947, he was born in Chicago, Illinois to Polish-American parents. He graduated from De La Salle High School in West Hollywood, California in 1976 and then went on to play Division I basketball for Duke University from 1977 to 1991. During his time at Duke, he not only helped lead the team to three National Championships but also established many records including most career victories (1,732) and most seasons with at least 20 wins (20). In addition to being a coach, Krzyzewski has had an extensive career in the NBA where he is still active today. He has won two Olympic gold medals, four World Championships, and six Super Bowls as a player or coach.
As a young man, Coach K wanted to be a baseball player like his father before him but when he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the first round of the 1976 MLB draft, he decided to try out for their basketball team instead. Although he did not make the final cut, this experience taught him how to handle himself on and off the court/field which served him well later in life. After graduating from Duke in 1990, he immediately entered the NBA where he remained until 2001 when he retired to focus on coaching.
American Kebangsaan/Mike Krzyzewski Mike Krzyzewski, real name Michael William Krzyzewski, popularly known as Coach K, is an American college basketball coach who guided the Duke Blue Devils to the most coaching victories in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball history. He has won more games than any other coach in NCAA history.
He co-founded the famous blue and white team that he led to multiple national championships at Duke University. His overall record is 928-150 (.846).
Coach K was born on August 4th, 1945, in New York City. His father was a French immigrant who worked as a laborer for an oil company and his mother was from Tennessee. He has one brother named David who is also a basketball coach.
When Coach K was young, his family moved to Durham, North Carolina where he grew up playing basketball in the streets with his friends. He then went on to play for John Burness Jr., who had been an assistant under Dean Smith at North Carolina before becoming the head coach at Duke.
Under Coach Burness' guidance, Coach K developed into one of the best two-way players in college basketball. In 1970, when he was just a freshman, he helped lead Duke to its first undefeated regular season ever.
Krzyzewski, 74, is known across the globe as "Coach K," and he is the all-time winningest coach in men's collegiate basketball, with 1,170 victories.
He also has the highest winning percentage of any active coach in the NBA, having led Duke to an 814-153 record over 23 seasons. That means Krzyzewski has won an incredible 82.5 percent of his games.
Another impressive statistic is that no other active coach has won more than 70 percent of his games either in the NBA or the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Krzyzewski has been named the national college basketball player of the year three times, more than anyone else in history. He also has been selected as a first-team all-American 11 times.
In addition to his work at Duke, Krzyzewski has had considerable success as a coach overseas. Under his leadership, Czechoslovakia was undefeated at home during 1972's World Championship tournament team. Also under his guidance, Bulgaria made its debut in international competition in 1991.
Finally, Coach K has had tremendous influence on the development of young players, both internationally and domestically.
Krzyzewski was raised as a Catholic and attended St. Helen Catholic School in Ukrainian Village, Chicago, and afterwards Archbishop Weber High School, a Catholic prep school for males. In 1969, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and played basketball under Bob Knight. After retiring from coaching in April 2009, he remained at East Chapel Hill High School as an assistant principal.
He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). When he was an undergraduate student at North Carolina State University, he met his wife, Debbie, who was also a student there. They were married on May 2, 1977, by Bishop Eugene Sutton of the LDS Church's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. Krzyzewski has said that his faith is important to him and that he tries to live up to the standards set by the saints.
In 1982, Krzyzewski became the youngest person ever elected president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), serving one term. In 1990, he was again elected president at the age of 37, this time becoming the first person ever to be re-elected to the office. He held this position until 1994 when he stepped down to focus on coaching basketball.
Because he was too preoccupied in making a bloody fortune at Duke. Mike Krzyzewski, dubbed "Coach K," announced his retirement on June 2, 2021–2022. He is the all-time winning leader of the Duke Blue Devils basketball team and one of the most successful coaches in NCAA history.
He took over the struggling program in 1973 and led it to unprecedented success during his 26 years at the school. Under Coach K, Duke made the NCAA Tournament every year except for 1975 and 1979 — when it went 30-0 and won the national championship, respectively. He also brought three straight Final Four appearances from 1991 to 1993 and a National Championship in 2003.
After retiring from coaching, he stayed at Duke to take over its training center in Durham before moving on to become the president of the college in 2006. However, he returned to coach the Blue Devils in 2011 and 2012 after Danny Green and Jabari Parker were killed in a car accident in 2013. He coached his last game on April 7, 2012 vs. Virginia Commonwealth University and was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer two months later. He had been treating the disease without any signs of progression until January 2020 when it was reported that he had begun receiving radiation therapy.
Even though he has retired from coaching, he still works as the president of the college at Duke.
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